Students learn dangers of texting and driving

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Teens driving golf carts had a rough time avoiding the orange cones outside Providence High School on Thursday.

One by one, they tried to text and stay on course, but the distraction proved too much.

“(It’s) surprisingly difficult,” student Dylan Bryant said.

He was going through the distracted-driving lesson.

“Even kids I've been driving with, I've seen text and drive, so I definitely think it's a prominent issue,” Bryant said.

Texting and driving is the cause of more than 100 teen deaths in the U.S. a year, according to the state Highway Patrol.

While the course played out outside, inside, a mother spoke to students about her tragic loss.

“I am trying to get through to these kids that one text, that one call is not worth your life or anybody else's life,” Tracy Carroll said.

She told students how her 18-year-old daughter Sara died in 2010. She was reading a text and hit a log truck.

“I don't want any other parent to have to go through what I went through. I don't want their kids to be a statistic. I'm trying to save lives,” Carroll said.

She said she's not just talking to students.

“If a parent's in the car texting and driving, your child's watching, so they're thinking it's OK, too. ‘Mom can do it, I can do it,’” she said.

As the teens finished the course, trooper John Burgin said the goal is to make them realize how this translates onto real roadways.

“It just shows them how dangerous that it is,” he said. “Roughly 5 to 10 miles an hour is all we're going out here, versus 55 out on the roads."

One teen said he got the message loud and clear.

“It's a stupid thing to lose your life over,” he said.

WSOC